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Current Archbishop of Canterbury to stand down

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MidnightFlyer

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... from December, taking up a post at Cambridge University.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17399403

I am presuming this probably matters to someone ;)

Anyway, does anyone else think that this and the whole gay marriage debate at the moment are related? He has received some criticism from within the past for his acceptance of gay bishops; as well as other events such as him saying Sharia law will most probably come into effect in Britain at some point, and a few others. It certainly hasn't been a quiet decade.

Personally, I could never really stand the man, he always looked like the sort of person who would turn my interest away from Anglicanism, not persuade me to join it.
 
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Oswyntail

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I think this is related only inasmuch as he has got fed up with all the silliness around. Trying to keep the CofE together in the last few years has been like trying to hold a cup of water without a cup. He is a genuinely wise and humane person, not afraid of speaking out where he needed to. I just hope his successor has been sorted out, as I can see some dreadful blood-letting otherwise,
 

Welshman

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I will be sorry to see him go.

He is a deeply prayerful man, and I think he has been a wise leader and tried to hold the Anglican Communion together during a challenging decade, which has rather resembled the Chinese Curse - "May you live in interesting times"

Some of his pronouncements have initially appeared obtuse, but then faith and truth are by nature extremely sophisticated and cannot be expressed in simple sound-bites, which is what the popular press demands.

He has tried to uphold the comprehensive nature of Anglicanism and has sometimes been criticised for being ambivalent as a result.

I, too, wonder about his successor. Dr John Sentamu seems to be favourite at present.
 

yorksrob

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Whether one agrees with Dr Williams views or not, he's a heavyweight who's never been afraid to speak his mind to the establishment. Canterbury will have difficulty finding a replacement !
 

RPM

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As an atheist I have little right to comment, but I have to say I always regarded Rowan Williams as one of the good guys in the church. He seemed cerebral, human, progressive and was a welcome breath of fresh air after that berk Carey. But then, as I said, I'm an atheist so my views on clerical matters are probably irrlelevant.:roll:
 

Oswyntail

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...But then, as I said, I'm an atheist so my views on clerical matters are probably irrlelevant.:roll:
Not at all. The Church has to exist among people who disagree with it, and having a leader they can respect is essential. A lot of the trouble the Church (not just CofE) has found itself in over the last century has stemmed from leaders ignoring the changes in society in which they operate.
 

Greenback

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Whether one agrees with Dr Williams views or not, he's a heavyweight who's never been afraid to speak his mind to the establishment. Canterbury will have difficulty finding a replacement !

I agree. Although not a practising Christian by any means, I found his lack of timidity in speakin gout on issues a refreshing change.

He will be returning back to his field of academia. Past students of his speak very highly of him.

According to some reports I have read, he was reluctant to take on the role in the first place, but felt he was called to it for the good of the church. No doubt he feels he has done his duty for ten years, and has had enough.

As an atheist I have little right to comment, but I have to say I always regarded Rowan Williams as one of the good guys in the church. He seemed cerebral, human, progressive and was a welcome breath of fresh air after that berk Carey. But then, as I said, I'm an atheist so my views on clerical matters are probably irrlelevant.:roll:

So are mine, to be honest, but I think that the words cerebral, progressive and human are excellent choices to sum up Dr Williams.
 

Schnellzug

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I see in the Paper today he was saying that "the C of E could break up" over the [same old] issues it's been arguing about since about the 1st century A.D; altogether now, Homosexuality and the Place of Women. Well, to be quite honest I think it's about time it did. And I'm not saying that as a militant Atheist; just the opposite in fact, I think the Church (Anglican and Catholic) could, and ought to, play a very vaulable role as a "social security" service (like the Monasteries used to before Henry VIII), and as a social conscience; but the Anglican church doesn't want to do that while it's part of the Establishment, because it doesn't want to rock the boat or question Authority. So I think that the breakup of the Established Church might actually be the best thing that could happen to it, and perhaps they might stop bangin' on about the same old issues that are only controversial among themselves.
 

Welshman

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I see in the Paper today he was saying that "the C of E could break up" over the [same old] issues it's been arguing about since about the 1st century A.D; altogether now, Homosexuality and the Place of Women. Well, to be quite honest I think it's about time it did. And I'm not saying that as a militant Atheist; just the opposite in fact, I think the Church (Anglican and Catholic) could, and ought to, play a very vaulable role as a "social security" service (like the Monasteries used to before Henry VIII), and as a social conscience; but the Anglican church doesn't want to do that while it's part of the Establishment, because it doesn't want to rock the boat or question Authority. So I think that the breakup of the Established Church might actually be the best thing that could happen to it, and perhaps they might stop bangin' on about the same old issues that are only controversial among themselves.

Rowan Williams has worked extremely hard to keep the Anglican Communion together at all costs, and yet it is still fighting amongst itself and not prepared to listen.

I think the time has come to recognise that that ideal Communion is now no longer realistically possible, especially when, for example, the African church leaders come from a totally different background and culture regarding attitudes towards homosexuality and the place of women in society, compared with Western society.

The church must be true to its calling in the particular place it finds itself, and I would love to see it as the moral conscience of the nation, as Schnellzug envisages.

Where I disagree is that I think that change is best brought about from within the establishment, rather than from outside it, and that establishment should be used to its advantage. Someone once said the church should be a bad party-member - ready to support whichever government is in power when it is helping the underprivileged and needy, but not afraid to speak-out when necessary.

And I agree absolutely that the church should stop breaking itself up over issues which are no longer relevant to the rest of society. All it is doing is re-arranging the deck-chairs on the Titanic.
 
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